Ryanair Warns of Job Cuts After Delays to Boeing’s 737 Max Jets

(Bloomberg) --

Ryanair Holdings Plc will reconsider its summer schedule and has warned employees of job cuts and base closures due to the protracted grounding of Boeing Co.’s 737 Max jet, according to a memo to staff seen by Bloomberg.

Europe’s biggest low-cost airline will redraw its summer 2020 timetable with 10 fewer planes, as it now only expects the first Max jets to arrive in September or October at the earliest, Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wilson wrote in the letter dated Jan 27.

Ryanair is reining in growth as the Max remains grounded after two fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. While the U.S. planemaker aims to get the jet flying again by mid-year, the Irish company has ordered a high-capacity model that needs more certification even when the baseline plane has resumed operations.

Dublin-based Ryanair had originally planned to take 58 Max planes for summer 2020 before paring the estimate to 10 in December. The carrier is also cutting pilot and cabin-crew jobs and shuttering or shrinking some bases as the 737 issue weighs on faltering European demand for flights.

The carrier will announce the decision on base closures and job cuts in the first two weeks of February, the memo said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Siddharth Philip in London at sphilip3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, John Bowker, John Lauerman

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